Gears of War: 2 million copies, six weeks

Gears of War breaks Xbox 360 sales records while bringing even more people …

One of the advantages of having a year-long head start in the console wars is the fact you get to show off your second-generation games against the competition. Gears of War is a good example of this: it uses every trick the 360 has to make game look and play great; it was also helpful that Microsoft worked so closely with Epic in developing the game. All this effort paid off, we gave the game a 9 when we reviewed it. More importantly for Microsoft though are the sales numbers, and those are likewise impressive. The title has sold 2 million units in the six weeks since its launch, easily becoming one of the most popular next-generation games.

The story isn't just in the sales numbers of the software itself though; Gears of War has been dominating Xbox Live since its release. Sandvine Incorporated has reported an 80 percent jump in hosts using Xbox Live, a significant spike in usage. There has also been a 30 percent jump in traffic increase in the service since November 7. While some of these numbers are due to the free 48-hour Xbox Live Gold trial included in the game, a good number of those users appear to have retained the service. While some of the bandwidth consumption is also due to the video download service launching, it's clear that Gears of War is doing a good job of bringing customers online.

This is the kind of software hit that Microsoft needs to combat Sony and Nintendo: a title that not only mobilizes existing customers, but moves systems and further brings those existing and new customers onto Microsoft's online pay service. This also helps Microsoft sell the 360 to game developers—neither the PS3 nor the Nintendo Wii could have sold a game in these numbers, simply because there aren't 2 million of those systems in the hands of consumers and may not be for some time. Twilight Princess sold at almost a 1:1 ratio with Wii hardware in November, and was only able to sell 412,00 units. The PS3 sold less than 200,000 units in total in November. In terms of installed base, the 360 has an advantage that's going to take the competition a long time to neutralize.

Luckily for everyone involved Epic was forward thinking enough to add the surety of a sequel through the ending cinematic of the game, so the money train won't be stopping with the first game. With sales this high even before the buying rush of Christmas this game may threaten even Halo's supremacy as Microsoft's premier franchise.